Transcript Outstanding Women in Buddhism AWARDS CEREMONY

In Honor of the UN International Woman’s Day
Outstanding Women in Buddhism
AWARDS CEREMONY
Jampa Tsedroen, 03/2007
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Previous Award Recipients
Ven. Bhikkhuni Voramai
Kabilsingh
Ven. Bhiksuni Thubten
Chodron USA)
Ven. Bhiksuni Prof. Dr. Karma Lekshe Tsomo (USA),
Founder and President of Sakyadhita International,
From the left to the right:
Gabriele Kuestermann
(Founder of the Foundation of Buddhist Studies Germany),
Ven. Dhammananda
(former Prof. Dr. Chat-sumarn Kabilsingh),
Another nun from Thailand,
Ms. Ranjani de Silva
(President of Sakyadhita Sri Lanka)
Buddha
Sakyamuni
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Contents
• The birth of the “Vajrayana Bhikkhuni”
movement
• The role of a Bhikkhuni in addressing
an improved status for Women in Society
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
“Vajrayana Bhikkhuni?”
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
“Vajrayana Bhikkhuni?”
Outstanding Woman in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
The living Vinaya Traditions
• Dharmaguptakas
(practised in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese Buddhism)
• Theravadins
(practised in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos,
Cambodia and Vietnam) and
• Mulasarvastivadins
(practised in Tibetan Buddhism)
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
The living Vinaya Traditions
• All 3 Vinaya Traditions are rooted with the
Sthaviras, the early followers of our common
teacher Buddha Sakyamuni (ca. 5th cent. B.C.)
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Contents
• The birth of the Bhikkhuni movement in
Tibetan Buddhism
• The role of a Bhikkhuni in addressing an
improved status for Women in Society
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
The birth and process of the...
Bhikkhuni movement in Tibetan Buddhism
• 08/2005: 50,000 CHF
donation to pilot fund
towards the revival of
the Bhikkhuni precepts
in Tibetan Buddhism
• Establishment of a Committee
of Western Buddhist Nuns
to take the lead in exploring
this goal
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
The Bhikkhuni Lineage
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Registration for Congress
• The congress aims at the re-establishment of the full
ordination of Bhikkhuni within the Tibetan tradition
of Buddhism and a world-wide consensus on the
re-establishment of the Bhikkhuni Ordination.
You can easily register online at:
www.congress-on-buddhist-women.org
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
The Role of a Bhikkhuni in Society
How can we develop the
existing Bhikkhuni Sangha
the best possible way?
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
The Role of a Bhikkhuni in Society
• According to the Tibetan Mulasarvastivada Vinaya it
would be a fault, if the Bhikkhu Sangha is requested for
Bhikkhuni Ordination, but does not grant it.
• In ancient India women had always to be protected by
men, their fathers or brothers, their husbands and sons.
Accordingly, due to those social circumstances, the
Buddha asked the Bhikkhu Sangha to protect the
Bhikkhuni Sangha.
• Meanwhile more than 2500 years have passed.
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Buddhism, the Charter of the UN and Human Rights
•
It cannot be that 2500 years ago, during Buddha's
lifetime, Bhikkhuni ordination was possible, and
nowadays when everybody speaks about the equal rights
of men and women – rights that are guaranteed by the
Human Rights and the Charter of the United Nations,
ratified by Buddhist countries like Thailand in the year
2000 – it is no longer possible to become a Bhikkhuni.
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Status of Women in Society
• There is a direct relationship between the low status of
women in Thai Buddhism and the inferior status of women
in society, which places them at risk or abuses such as
domestic violence and sex trafficking, as well as increased
vulnerability to HIV.
It is even said “that Buddhism reinforces the understanding
that women are a lower rebirth than men because of
kamma acquired in previous lives” (Owen 1998).
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Status of Women in Buddhism
• But Buddha explained already 2500 years ago that women
can attain arhatship in the body of a woman. In Cullavaga
X it is clearly stated that, when Ananda asked:„Now Lord,
are women having gone forth from home into homelessness
in the dhamma and discipline proclaimed by the Truthfinder, able to realise the fruit of stream-attainment or the
fruit of once-returning or the fruit of non-returning or
arahantship?“
The Buddha said:
„Women, Ananda, having gone forth are able to realise the
fruit of stream-attainment or the fruit of once-returning or
the fruit of non-returning or arahantship.“
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Status of Women in Society
What would Buddha
say today?
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Status of Women in Society
Can one follow Buddhism
on the one hand and
keep the Human Rights
on the other hand?
Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award Ceremony:
Status of Women in Society
To revive the Bhikkhuni Sangha
means, that we‘ll go back to the
roots and follow the attitude of
the Buddha.